Iraq — Market Overview
🇮🇶 Iraq
Iraq is best read through crude revenues and public-sector transmission because fiscal spending, infrastructure activity, and the confidence backdrop still depend heavily on the oil cycle and on domestic stability. The cleanest read usually comes from oil receipts, government spending throughput, and whether banks and telecom-linked listed names can grow through a still-fragile operating backdrop.
Regional map
Key facts
Iraq at a glance
Capital
Currency
Primary exchange
Central bank
Region
Time zone
Country dashboard
Why this market matters
This first pass is built as a reusable country page instead of a static essay. The page now combines a stylized country map, a switchable line-chart explorer, and linked peer countries so users can move from Iraq into the rest of the region without losing the macro frame.
Macro explorer
Switch variables, keep the country context
GDP, inflation, labor, policy, and industrial activity are shown on a quarterly path from 2000 onward, while debt and the local equity benchmark come in when usable history exists. This keeps the page focused on fiscal room and macro regime while the broader official country pipeline keeps expanding.
Real GDP growth
Iraq starter GDP-growth path anchored to sourced country profile readings; full official historical wiring is still pending.
Available variables
Trade and external position
Exports, services, and external balance
Instead of a generic macro-card wall, this section focuses on how the country earns demand from abroad, where its trade edge sits, and how the external balance is evolving.
The full export figure, combining goods and services in one line. It is the cleanest way to read how much external demand Iraq is capturing across both physical products and higher-value intangible flows.
This is the merchandise side of exports: industrial supplies, capital goods, autos, food, and other physical products. It matters because it reflects the health of manufacturing, energy, aerospace, and the broader global industrial cycle.
This is the intangible side: finance, travel, licensing, business services, and IP-linked flows. It matters because it shows where Iraq is strongest in higher-margin, knowledge-intensive, and branded service activities.
Trade partners
Where the country trades
Commodity lens
Raw-material exposure
Trade in goods and services equaled 70.7% of GDP in 2024. This is a quick read on how externally exposed the economy is.
Services represented 9.7% of total exports in the latest reading, which helps show whether the export mix leans more toward intangibles or merchandise.
Manufactures accounted for 0.0% of merchandise exports in 2016.
Fuel exports accounted for 100.0% of merchandise exports in 2016, useful for reading commodity exposure.
Food exports accounted for 0.0% of merchandise exports in 2016, adding context on agricultural exposure.
Source: World Bank API: totalExports,
What to watch
Reading framework
oil revenues
Iraq should first be read through oil revenues. When this regime shifts, local multiples and sector leadership usually shift with it.
public spending
The cleanest read usually comes from oil receipts, government spending throughput, and whether banks and telecom-linked listed names can grow through a still-fragile operating backdrop. That makes public spending one of the most important signals for revising the country narrative.
domestic stability
The final layer is domestic stability, because it determines whether the macro backdrop turns into sustainable earnings support for the ISX60.
Other countries
Continue across Middle East
Each card opens the same country template with its own map, switchable macro variables, and benchmark view. This is the first linked network of country pages across the region.
Middle East
🇮🇷 Iran
A large sanctions-affected market driven by inflation, currency weakness, commodities, and domestic liquidity.
Middle East
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
A large Gulf market driven by oil, state-led investment, banking liquidity, and the Vision 2030 capex cycle.
Middle East
🇹🇷 Turkey
A high-beta market where inflation, rates, FX credibility, banks, and exporters all collide in the valuation story.
Middle East
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
A Gulf hub market shaped by oil-linked liquidity, property, banking, and cross-border capital flows.
Real GDP growth
What This Signals
GDP growth is published quarterly and annualized, so each point captures how fast real output was expanding or contracting versus the prior quarter at an annual rate. It matters because it is the broadest scorecard of domestic economic momentum and sets the backdrop for revenues, employment, and policy expectations. Versus a year ago, the series is lower by 3.2%, which points to a softer or less supportive backdrop on this measure. Across the displayed window, the broader trend is still downward.